In the Eye of the Beholder
by shelllessturtle
Summary: Just some Nine/Rose fluff I felt like writing. AU after PotW, spoilers for said episode.


A/N: Written, oh, maybe at the beginning of the summer? So about half a year ago. I wanted to write something None/Rose. I came up with this idea. This is how it worked out. Originally, it was intended to be some weird version of the plotline from Uglies/Pretties/Specials, but I decided against it in the end, and used this instead.

Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who. Trust me, you'd know it if I did.

Summary: Rose gets lost on a alien planet.....again.

* * *

He's frantic; more so than he really should be, but then again _should_ went out the metaphorical window ages ago. She'd been missing before, but it had never been for this long without a trace. Sure, there had been others missing this long without a trace, but they usually didn't want to be found, and he was almost certain that _she_, of all people, would always want him to find her.

He had thought that it wouldn't take too long to find her; the people of this planet, though mostly human, had completely different builds than that of one Rose Tyler; their big, bulky bodies more suited to their way of life and the harsh winters that seared across this world than that of twenty-first century humans native to Earth. Certainly, plenty of people had seen her, picked her out because of her difference to them, but still, the Doctor couldn't find anyone who had seen her within the last sixty minutes.

He finally strikes gold when he stops at a house right next to what passed for a police station and hospital, combined. The father of the family can't tell him anything, but his wife tells the Doctor that she had seen Rose being led off into the police station/hospital by three police officers about two hours back.

"What the hell could she have done this time?" the Doctor demands, not really expecting an answer. The woman obliges him anyway.

"The police here don't really take to people who look different very well. If we get a visitor from off-planet, they're usually carted off as soon as possible. We never see them come back out, but we do get new townspeople shortly after." She lowers her voice to a whisper. "But they look a lot like the off-worlders, and act quite a bit like drones. I think that they do something in that hospital to change off-worlders to be like us. My husband wouldn't like me telling you this, so please don't say anything."

The Doctor smiles kindly, albeit distractedly, and says, "Don't worry. I probably won't be around to tell your husband anything pretty soon. Thank you." He waves to the woman, and walks confidently towards the police station entrance to the nearby building.

He walks up to the receptionist, a huge woman, bigger than any other he had seen yet, and pulls out a picture of Rose. "I understand that a group of three officers brought this young woman in here roughly one hundred twenty minutes ago. I want to know where she went." He already has the psychic paper ready, and hands it over to the woman.

"We don't accept off world credentials," the woman tells him.

"You what?" the Doctor asks, disbelieving.

"Those credentials have no effect here. You need to get them on-planet, or there's no way they'll work."

The Doctor can feel his anger getting the better of him, and struggles to control it before he does something rash. _Nothing doing,_ are the words that come to him at his failure. He whips out his sonic screwdriver and points it at the door behind the receptionist, and it flies open. He strides past the protesting woman, saying, "I'll find her myself."

Once truly inside the station, it's disturbingly easy to get where he needs to go. This breed being a particularly stupid off-shoot of the human race, there are signs giving clear directions to everywhere, as well as the rooms being labeled.

A good way down the main hallway, there is a sign reading, "Private Operating Chamber, Personnel Only." There is no way that could be any more obvious.

He breaks into the room to a rather heartening scene, considering; Rose is standing in a corner, a chair held out in front of her. There are three hulking men in white coats trying to get closer to her; each has a syringe containing what the Doctor suspects is a sedative. One man has a large bump on his forehead; another, a black eye; the third undamaged, but there is another man lying on the floor, out cold, a shattered syringe at his side. The Doctor cannot help the swell of pride that fills him as he figures what has happened.

"Doctor!" Rose exclaims. One of the men takes advantage of her momentary distraction and tries to jab her with his needle, only to find the syringe shattering, along with those of his two still-conscious colleagues.

Rose drops the chair and rushes to the Doctor's side. She throws her arms around him, burying her face in his woolen jumper. The Doctor wraps his arms around her in turn, holding her close.

"You okay?" he asks when they relinquish their grips on each other.

"I think so," Rose responds. "They didn't do anything to me, if that's what you're asking."

Steel blue eyes meet amber ones, and a look of understanding passed between the two of them.

"What were you trying to do to her?" the Doctor asks the three men angrily.

"We felt it a shame that a young girl like her has so little beauty," one of the men, the one on the far right, speaks up, "so we took pity on her."

_Wrong answer,_ the Doctor thinks. "She's beautiful the way she is," he says fiercely, and hears Rose's startled gasp, "and I'll thank you never to say a word against her ever again." He changes track very suddenly. "How long has all this changing been going on? Yes, I know about it, no need to try and deny it!" he adds, for the men looks incredulous and about to protest.

"Ten years," the man in the middle says sullenly.

"Well, it stops now," the Doctor tells them. "And don't make me wreck this place because I will. If it doesn't stop, and I'll know, then I'll be back, and believe me, you won't know what hit you." He picks up Rose's hand and leads her out the door without another word. They don't speak until they get back to the TARDIS, almost a mile away.

Rose looks up at the Doctor thoughtfully.

"What?" he asks, but Rose merely shrugs. She sits in the jumpseat as the Doctor launches them into the Vortex.

Minutes of silence pass, the Doctor fiddling with the controls, Rose sitting on the jumpseat, watching him.

"Did you mean that?" Rose asks finally.

"Mean what?" the Doctor asks, only half-listening, reading what was on the view screen as he adjusts the TARDIS a bit more.

"What you said about me being beautiful? Did you mean it?"

The Doctor looks up, surprised, Rose now having his full attention. "Of course I did. Wouldn't have said it if I didn't," he tells her.

"But beautiful how?" she presses. "Beautiful by human standards, or beautiful to you?"

"Rose…" he says helplessly.

"Please," she says, getting up and threading her fingers through his, "please tell me."

He finds himself gazing into her gorgeous amber eyes for the second time in less than half an hour, and decides that he really should just take this leap.

"Beautiful to me," he practically whispers, but he knows she hears it; her breathing quickens slightly.

"Really?" she asks breathlessly.

"Really," he says, and he cannot help it any longer; he gives into the pressure he caved to only once, and kisses her.

She doesn't remember their first kiss, back on the Game Station, and so to her this is the first, and he tries to put all his feelings for her into it. He can feel her returning the pressure, giving as good as she gets, and he wonders for a minute just exactly how deep her feelings for him go.

She pulls back for air, and then lays her head on his chest, hugging him tightly. The Doctor forgets, for a moment, how fleeting her little human life is, and simply holds her, stretching the moment into forever.

401-569-9043


End file.
